COLUMBUS, Ohio – A state board authorized a $2.1 million loan Monday afternoon to Ohio agencies that are running the medical marijuana program, which is experiencing delays getting product on shelves.

The Ohio Medical Marijuana Control Program is expected to be self-supporting from license fees from cultivators, dispensaries, testing labs and other medical marijuana-related enterprises. The businesses are to start paying the fees once they receive certificates of operation from state regulators, Mark Hamlin, senior policy adviser for Ohio's Department of Commerce, told the Ohio Controlling Board, made up of lawmakers and representatives of Gov. John Kasich.

But few certificates of operation have been awarded, due to a series of delays that have prevented the program from being fully operational Sept. 8, the deadline specified under the Ohio law that legalized medical marijuana.

Meantime, the state has faced a handful of lawsuits from medical marijuana businesses that didn’t win licenses, which has run up legal fees, Hamlin said. Some cases are being appealed.

Examples of lawsuits include a challenge to the section of the Ohio medical marijuana law that some of the licenses must go minority-owned businesses. A Franklin County judge ruled against the state and two minority-owned marijuana businesses that racial quotas are allowed. The minority-owed businesses have filed an appeal in the case, Hamlin said.

The state’s legal costs through June 30, the end of the fiscal year, are estimated to be around $3.1 million, Hamlin said. In April, the medical marijuana program got $1 million from the Controlling Board, and it needed another $2.1 million from Ohio’s Emergency Purposes Fund.

Members of the Controlling Board wanted to know when the medical marijuana program would repay the fund and whether this is the last time program officials will ask for money.

Hamlin said it will begin to repay the state when it starts receiving more fees.

And the program will be self-sufficient in the future, Hamlin said.

“Our position is this is a timing issue -- not a structural issue,” he said.